Assistant Secretary of State William Burns will be the first high-ranking member of the Bush administration to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority since the President’s inauguration and the Palestinian election when he arrives on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, he discussed Israel’s pending withdrawal from the Gaza Strip with Egyptian leaders.
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Burns’s trip comes against the background of American praise for Mahmoud ‘Abbas’s seeming willingness to tackle the issue of terror.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Tuesday that, “We’re encouraged overall that President Abu Mazen is taking concrete steps to control the security situation…and at the coordination that’s taking place between Israeli and Palestinian officials.”